Never Look Back and Never Giving Up!

Let me share someone's life history with you. This was a man who failed in business at the age of 21; was defeated in a legislative race at age 22; failed again in business at age 24; overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 26; had a nervous breakdown at age 27; lost a congressional 53 of 279 race at age 34; lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an effort to become vice-president at age 47; lost a senatorial race at age 49; and was elected president of the United States at age 52.This man was Abraham Lincoln.

One day a partially deaf four year old kid came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, "Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school." His mother read the note and answered, "My Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself." And that Tommy grew up to be one of the great inventors history has ever seen. Thomas Edison. He had only three months of formal schooling and he was partially deaf.

Colonel Sanders, man behind KFC, at age 65, with a beat-up car and a $100 check from Social Security, realized he had to do something. He remembered his mother's recipe and went out selling. How many doors did he have to knock on before he got his first order?.

These people could have quit. But they didn't. They took the defeat as a challenge to conquer. To them, defeat was a detour and not a dead end, and this made them one among the people who reshaped history.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of life you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into the flames of achievement.

Thomas Edison failed approximately 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb. How many of us quit after three tries, ten tries, a hundred tries, and then we say we tried as hard as we could?

Setbacks are inevitable in life. A setback can act as a driving force and also teach us humility. In grief you will find courage and faith to overcome the setback. We need to learn to become victors, not victims. Fear and doubt short circuit the mind.

Ask yourself after every setback: What did I learn from this experience? What should I do to make sure this doesn't repeat again? Only then will you be able to turn a stumbling block into a stepping stone.

Disappointments will cross your path in the future. Every day brings its share of challenges. Still, we can choose to enjoy each day as it comes, purposing not to dwell on the things we can't change. As our attitude towards life changes, we identify the opportunities left in front of us. This Hope re-ignites in our hearts, and we begin to dream again.

In the darkest of your life, see the tiniest spark of light rays. Kindle them. If you decide to give up, you have decided to fail. If you decided to fail, there is nothing more disastrous than that.

Sometimes everything turns upside down. Bad things happen to good people. We cannot choose our parents or the circumstances of our birth. What do we do from here; cry or take the ball and run? That is a choice we have to make.

Between stimulus and response is our greatest power - the freedom to choose. This takes me to the habit of "be proactive". It says that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

Look at the word responsibility - "response-ability" - the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

Success is not measured by how high we go up in life but by how many times we bounce back when we fall down. It is this bounce back ability that determines success.

To deal with a setback the right way, take a step back and look at the situation objectively. You are probably feeling hurt, worried, upset and maybe confused. Most likely, a swarm of emotions is flying around in your head. Try to put these aside so you can seriously ponder the problem you are facing.

People who have overcome obstacles are more secure than those who have never faced them. We all have problems and we feel discouraged some time. Most people get disappointed; but winners don't get disheartened. The answer is perseverance.

An English proverb says, "A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner." Everything is difficult before it becomes easy. We cannot run away from our problems. Only losers
quit and give up.

Success is a journey through thorns. Path is not filled with roses to you. You have humps ahead of you. Your car may get break down. Gas gets over. You seem to get totally lost on the way. Winners never give up. They take it as a challenge.

The game is still going. You are still in the team. Time is running. Plenty of opportunity left before that final whistle ends the entire show.

Remember: BEHIND EVERY SUCCESS STORY, THERE IS A STORY OF A FAILURE. BUT FOR WINNERS, FAILURE IS ONLY A STAGE BEFORE SUCCESS"

Happiness at Work

A recent article, revealed that we spend "One-third of our life at work." The article explores the notion that "work is more than just a way to support oneself financially. It is a psychological necessity: it is how we express our potential, demonstrate our skills, excel, define our identity and do something useful for ourselves and for others."

Since we spend a significant amount of our lives at work "not even counting the time we spend commuting, working overtime and thinking about work after we go home", it is important to find out if one can be happy at one's job regardless of if one's current role is ideal.

The University of Laval study shows that "while many people develop self-confidence and a feeling of accomplishment through work, it can be a source of stress. The combination of employer requirements and the demands of modern life are a growing burden for individuals."

So how does someone develop a healthy work ethic in which one is committed to excellence without been exhausted from working? The answer, regardless of one's job or employment environment, is to learn how to how to deal with stress; and to have a clear understanding of what happiness means to you.

No matter how you define happiness, the need to be able to sustain that state of being, is one of the reasons we sometimes require employment.

The pursuit of happiness, at work or at play, is a significant driving force. So it is easy to understand that anything or anyone who threatens or compromises one's happiness, is a source of stress.

In the face of a potentially recovering economy, it is important to find the sources of our stability and happiness at work. Here are five practical ways to achieve contentment whether you love your job or otherwise.

Have a life plan: Have a short term and long term goal professionally and personally and review these plans frequently. Having a life plan allows focus because of the realization that there is a purpose to one's current job.

Have an active and Virtual portfolio: A portfolio (on-line) provides the ability for you to showcase all your skills. This allows you to show your range. You might be working as an Accountant but you may also be a skilled Graphics Designer. Should a potential project come up with your current employer, you can showcase your unknown skills or decide to explore a change in career. A portfolio allows you to be detailed in your abilities versus a resume that has length restrictions and requires that you focus on one particular job.

Know what makes you happy and what stresses you: Being able to do so, allows you to attend quicker to stressors. Prevention is better than cure. If one identities a source of stress, one can come up with a viable plan on the necessary course of action.

Become an expert: do a lot of research and learn more about your role. This allows to accomplish two things. First, you are the person, people will come to in your place of work, making you irreplaceable. Secondly, this makes you more attractive to a potential employer or makes you tremendously skilled if you decide to start a company of your own.

It's Good to Be Selfish Sometimes

People tell you all the time not to be selfish. But in order to succeed in life you have to be selfish at times. If a person wants to succeed they have to look out for themselves and what's in their best interest to succeed. IF people are not selfish, they often let people hold them back from the things that they need to do in order to accomplish something. So why not be selfish if you're trying to do something positive with your life?

To be selfish means that you are looking out for your own interest or your own life. With that in mind, everything you do to live can be considered selfish. When you eat you are supporting your life, is that selfish? When you are happy of your accomplishments and take pride in your character, is that selfish? When you use your mind to do things in pursuit of your own happiness, is that selfish? What exactly makes selfish a good or bad thing?

If you are not selfish, you will never get the things done that are most important to you. People have to understand that they are the most important thing in their life. If they are not in tune with themselves, how do they really expect to help others?

It is good to be selfish sometimes because it is an overall good and understandable goal to look out for one's self. It's also a good thing to be self dependent, and proud of the achievements that you have accomplished. It is only natural that people act in a manner that is positive for themselves.

How can a person honestly say they don't care about how something will impact them and their life? That right there is an act of selfishness. That kind of selfishness is not the same as being stingy and not helping others. But in order to help others, you have to help yourself first.

There is nothing really wrong with being selfish at times. Selfish will never be a bad thing is you follow a couple of rules. When acting in a selfish manner to succeed, you cannot violate the rights of others in order to accomplish your own goals. You cannot represent yourself as something you are not because that is misleading people and misleading yourself. Finally, you must do your absolute best to continuously think at all times while making sure that your actions bring you nothing but encouraging outcomes.

Forgive Everyone in Every Way

Forgive everyone, everyday, and in every way. Each person is doing the best he or she can. No one, absolutely no one is perfect. Since no one is perfect, this means that we all need to share more patience and more understanding surrounding all aspects of our interactions with one another. Think of the last time you needed to forgive someone. And, think of the last time you needed to be forgiven. When we need to be forgiven, there is a feeling of lack or something as missing. When we need to forgive, we often feel anger. Anger is a secondary emotion for loss. When we lose something, the need to restore what was lost. This sends us on a search within ourselves for attention in a peace filled direction. If you noticed, to forgive or to be forgiven leads you to the same place. Both paths of awareness lead us on a search. What are you searching for? You are searching to find wholeness. What is wholeness? This is often one's perception of reality created by what one believes to be true. This creation of what one believes to be true is the path of one's soul seeking manifestation in the world of form from the formless.

There is no set way to wholeness. Simply being aware that you have a self-defined understanding of wholeness that is within you is what we simply need to give attention to within us. This continued attention on what we seek the most within us will grow in our awareness until the need to place our attention on forgiveness fades away.

If a person was to believe that forgiveness is something obtained through the human psyche alone, we all would find the journey into such a place within us as something to avoid. In the deepest parts of who we are, we want to connect to what is sacred within us. Therefore, to re-create a past interaction with someone who we feel we harmed or who we feel harmed us is a useless attempt to embrace what cannot be. This is not to say that certain relationships close to us do not need verbal efforts to make up for a past action leading to harm. In fact, a person can find this useful, and even, helpful. The point I want to make is the place one's attention may be at the time such a verbal interaction will become vital in the success of such expressions taking place.

Dying patients remind me that there are countless times in all our lives where the issue of forgiveness was perceived and we become aware of it. There is no way a dying person can retrieve all their past life experiences in physical form, but we can recall these moments in time and visualize how we would have handled them differently. This is our soul seeking to make right a wrong our personality may not allow us to do, or it may no longer be feasible to take place in our current circumstances. People are such a vast array of experiences. There are endless paths of attention within us calling for our attention. Perhaps, the instant we remember who we are and who others are in the deepest parts of our being, we begin to remember the love that brings all our lives together, and into, being. This remembrance of who we are as children of our Creator reminds us of the unconditional spirit reflected within our own selves. The transcendence of flesh and blood inspires us to give our Creator our lives, the lives of others, and our very reason for living into the hands that created us.

Keeping Your Dreams Alive - Finding Happiness in Your Goals!

In this busy, hectic world, it is sometimes easy to forget that our lives are filled with dreams and hope for a different kind of tomorrow. We forget the importance of sitting back and remembering that so much of our happiness in life is dependent on keeping our personal dreams alive in some way.

Everything in life seems to have priority and just surviving, at times, is all we can do. But, think about it. When we stop for a moment and dream about what we can do to accomplish our goals, one day at a time, there is hope for a better tomorrow. And where there is hope, happiness soon follows.

Everyone dreams and develops goals differently but one thing is for sure, if you do not develop a plan of action to meet those goals, the dreams will never happen. If you do not strive to make daily action toward your goals a priority, the meaning of your life is diminished. Don't let life take over your dreams, take action today. Just follow a few basic steps and see what a difference your outlook on life will be. Use the following action plan as a guide. Tweak the guide to fit your particular circumstance, then, just do it! Remember, you have the power of your destiny.

Action Steps:

1. Set some time aside, about 15 minutes a day for one week and journal you're past experiences. Think about the time you were 18. What did it feel like to have aspirations to conquer the world? What made you feel alive and full of energy? The essence of what you have written down is where you will find life fulfilling dreams.

2. Break down your goals into identifiable daily, weekly and yearly actions. Be sure the goals are very, very specific. For example, "start a business" is a broad goal but "to start an internet business" is a more clear, concise goal.

3. Be sure to ask yourself the right questions on what it will take to accomplish your goals. By asking the right questions, you will be able to overcome any obstacles along the way. Instead of saying, "What kind of business can I start to earn income?" You probably should be asking, "What kind of business can I start on the internet that will be fun and bring in income I desperately need?" By asking the question the right way, you are changing the meaning of your desires to meet both the practical and passionate side of your life. By including the dreams in your goal for earning income, your likelihood of success is two-fold.

4. Be sure to work toward your goal every single day. It doesn't matter if the goal seems impossible, what matters is you are trying to get there and that is what is making you happy. A 75 year old woman was on a US television show "America's Got Talent." All her life, she has wanted to pursue a career in comedy but did not have the opportunity. Needless to say, she was a finalist on the show and now, has begun her career as a comedian. The point is, she was always striving to do what made her happy.

5. Don't let other people rain on your dreams. Dreams and goals do not have to meet anyone's approval except your own. If your goals require extra time away from the family or you need extra money from the family, negotiate and communicate their importance to those involved.

6. Lastly, follow through on your goals. Read your goals daily and have an action plan, written out, daily. Do you get my point - daily?!

Dreams are very personal and have different meaning for different people. Without our dreams and actions toward them, our lives are dull and hopeless. The importance of dreams cannot be diminished because without them - life becomes a chore, not an adventure it should be.

Learn to Be Happy and Life Will Be Good to You

Nearly everyone have heard the hit song 'Don't Worry, Be Happy'. The song has a very catchy way of conveying its message of being happy to everyone. This simple message certainly made several people happy by telling them not to worry.

Living a happy, spirited and positive life is fantastic, and is also great for your health. Being optimistic and happy in reality protects you from the stresses of life. Stress is related to most causes of death like heart conditions, cancer and strokes.

One of the best things ever said is - 'The only thing in life that will always stay the same is change', and in your life you have the power decide of required changes if you want to. Even if you find yourself in an intolerable situation you can always find comfort in knowing that, it also could change.

Relationships are necessary to happiness. People are different, accept them as who or How they are, avoid frictions, ceaseless arguments, and let go of all resentments. If arguments appear inevitable, nevertheless make an effort to try and understand the situation, you might just get along with it.

Happiness is found in everyone, expanding it is a way to make your life better and also healthier.

To be happy is relatively easy, just choose to be a happy person. It's been noticed that most people, most of the time can decide how happy, or stressed, how relaxed or disturbed, how bright or boring their outlook will be. The choice is simple actually, decide to be happy.

There are a lot of ways you can do this.

Being thankful is a very good attitude. We have so much to be grateful for. Thank the cabdriver for bringing you home safely, thank the cook for a wonderful meal and thank the guy who mows your lawn. Also thank the postman for bringing you your mail, thank your spouse for being there and thank God for being alive.

News is a source of stress. Get less of it. Some folks can't start their day without their regular dose of news. Think about it, most of the news we hear or read is bad news. Starting your day with bad news doesn't seem to be the right thing to do.

A spiritual connection is also good advise. Being part of a religious group and meditation foster's inner peace.

Manage your time. Time is priceless and too important to waste. Time management can be considered as a process that includes scheduling, setting goals, planning, lists of things to do and prioritizing. These are some of the elements of time management that should be understood to develop effective personal time management skills. These skills can be polished to include the finer points of each skill that could give you that extra boost to attain the results you want.

Laugh and laugh heartily everyday. Heard a good joke? Tell your friends or family about it. As they say -'Laughter is the best medicine'.

Express your feelings, affections, friendship and passion to people around you. They'll probably copy your actions. Try not to keep repressed anger or frustrations to yourself, this is bad for your health. Rather find ways of expressing them in a way that won't stimulate injury or hurt to anyone.

Hard work brings a lot of personal satisfaction. It leaves an impression of being efficient in completing your projects. Achievements are essential , they give you a sense of value. Work on things that you feel are worth your time.

Learning is a happy exercise. Try and pick up something new everyday. Learning also expands and broadens your horizon. And will give you more opportunities in the future.

Exercise, jog, walk, do things that will make your body happy. Feel alive.

Avoid exposure to negative factors like loud noises, and dangerous places.

These are the few simple things you are able to do day-after-day to be happy.

And always remember the famous quote from Abraham Lincoln, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Why So Serious?

Though it's one of the best lines of this past summer's blockbuster movie, "The Dark Knight;" "Why so serious," is also a really good question that most people might like to ask themselves.

Why do we take certain things so seriously? What is it about those particular topics that gets us so worked up and stressed out?

Alot of times we can take a step back and say to ourselves, "Is it really that serious?" or even know right from the jump that, "It's not that serious."

So really; why so serious? If you look at your own 'serious' reactions and those of others you know; you will see that it is always the things that people are ego identified with that brings the stress into the picture. In other words, it its always a concept or idea that has become part of that person's identity which raises all the hell for them.

To illustrate this; everything that your considers, is what the ego identified with. Your car, house, job, wife/husband, bills, retirement fund, etc. If anyone of these things is lost, comes into jeopardy, or is even slightly threatened; You're very identity comes under fire. Why so serious?

This just goes to show you the power the ego has over our minds until we are totally aware of it. Once we start operating above the ego, our minds are free. We are free to be sharper and more intuitive. We are even free to cultivate and protect what we know to be ours. The difference is that the chains of stress and the burden of bondage and attachment will no longer bog us down.

Life is no where near as serious as the ego makes it out to be. As a matter of fact, that seriousness is only a mental construct fueled by the ego. It does not really exist except in your head!

Life is meant to be lived. If there is anything at all stressing you right now; think about what's good right now. You may see that the source of the stress is but a thought and that it's really not that serious.